PS4 said to offer PS3 compatibility via cloud

Rumors suggest that Sony is planning to put the purchase of cloud gaming company Gaikai to work in the PlayStation 4 by using it to deliver PlayStation 3 backward compatibility via the cloud. This means that it will be possible to play older titles via streaming from the cloud, according to sources.

By using the streaming technology as a gateway to offer compatibility for older titles, the system gets around the difference in processors between the new offering and the previous CPU that was used. The technology has been used to stream PC games at a 720p resolution, but streaming the PlayStation 3 style games using that type of architecture could be tricky, to say the least.

Sources that we spoke with, however, are warning that to deliver a PS3 game even at 720p with the additional overhead will take some additional bandwidth; so bandwidth requirements could be much higher than that for delivering a PC game, for example.

It isn’t clear if this will be announced by Sony as their backward compatibility option on the PS4 or if this will be ready to go on launch day. We do know that at least right now Sony isn’t planning to deliver any PS4 games using this cloud technology. It is also unclear how this will work for those that already own PS3 games, and if there will be any additional charge for using it or whether an Xbox Live Gold-like membership will be required.